


pizza

by astralpenguin



Series: lead me to a future [7]
Category: The Maze Runner (Movies), The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types, The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Maze (Maze Runner), Chuck POV, Fire, Gen, Minor Character Death, Slight Murder Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2019-07-20 20:04:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16144508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astralpenguin/pseuds/astralpenguin
Summary: One of Chuck’s best friends wasn’t actually a classmate of his, but was one of his coworkers at the pizza shop. Chuck and Thomas were practically brothers by this point, and Chuck was pretty sure he was Thomas’ only friend.not recommended as a standalone





	pizza

**Author's Note:**

> chuck's pov of the present day during timelines 1&2
> 
> while this can be read as a standalone, it's really unsatifying if you haven't read the main fic, so idk why you'd do that

At first, Chuck didn’t realise what he’d found.

There was only one week of school left, and they’d been told to start thinking about what they wanted to do their self-directed projects on.

Naturally, he wanted to write a report on serial killers. It wasn’t a very original idea. Lots of people were thinking about doing the same thing. But he wasn’t going to let that put him off.

And he decided to start his research with a certain book.

It promised details on some of the worst serial killers over the last century. Chuck was thinking that he could use it as a starting point, to find some cases that he could analyse in more detail for his report. Hopefully the book would be written well enough that reading it wouldn’t feel like a chore.

One case in particular caught his eye.

Three children were murdered before the culprit was caught. Two little girls, and boy whose death narrowed down the suspects considerably, as only people who didn’t already know the boy could’ve mistaken him for a girl. The killer was serving a life sentence, but had never stopped claiming to be innocent.

Not only was it completely horrifying to think about in the first place, but it was so _close_. The murders had only taken place 18 years ago, so not too long before Chuck was born, and the town it had happened in wasn’t very far from the city in which Chuck lived. Chuck’s family had probably driven through it a few times.

It would definitely be an interesting one to analyse.

He stuck in a tab to mark the page, and was just about to write it down as one to come back to when he made the connection.

One of Chuck’s best friends wasn’t actually a classmate of his, but was one of his coworkers at the pizza shop. Chuck and Thomas were practically brothers by this point, and Chuck was pretty sure he was Thomas’ only friend.

Thomas had mentioned being from this town a few times.

Thomas was 29.

18 years ago, Thomas would’ve been 11.

The same age as the murdered children.

A quick search online told Chuck that there were only two primary schools in that town. Seeing as one of the girls had gone to Scorch, and the other two had gone to Glade, there was no way that Thomas hadn’t known at least one of the victims.

He might have even been their friend.

Thomas had never said anything about something like this happening to him. But Chuck wasn’t surprised about that. If any of _his_ classmates had been murdered, Chuck wouldn’t have been in any hurry to dredge those memories up.

He closed the book, leaving the tab in place, but didn’t make a note of the case like he’d originally planned. He knew that he’d want to bounce ideas for the project off his friend at some point. Having it include and focus on what was probably a sensitive topic would’ve just been cruel.

He could find another serial killer to talk about instead.

  


Thomas behaved strangely at times.

It didn’t happen very often, but it _did_ happen.

Whatever Thomas was doing, he’d abandon it, and approach somebody or do something that appeared to be completely random. But, somehow, he always seemed to stop something going wrong. It was almost as if he knew what could’ve happened had he not intervened.

Chuck couldn’t think of an explanation for it. He mostly tried not to worry about it.

That Sunday, it happened again.

Chuck had been sent out to deliver an order on foot, because the office that wanted it was only a couple of streets away. Thomas drove past on the company issue motorbike in the direction of his own delivery.

So far, so normal.

Then he swerved.

Chuck watched as Thomas did a sharp u-turn and drove up alongside a truck. Thomas slammed on the driver’s door, yelling something that Chuck couldn’t hear over the traffic and distance.

Then Thomas reached in through the driver’s open window. He grabbed the steering wheel and pulled it towards him.

Only then did Chuck see the child.

The truck had been fast approaching a crossing, and a little boy had just stepped out, having dutifully waited for the green man to appear.

The boy yelped as the truck passed by in front of him. Had Thomas not done anything, the truck would’ve certainly hit him.

Thomas had just saved that kid’s life.

Then came the crash.

  


Thomas woke up on Tuesday afternoon.

Chuck couldn’t stay long, but he made sure to tell Thomas that the manager wasn’t mad at him over the bike being destroyed.

Thomas wasn’t having any memory problems. He knew where he was and what he’d done. But, for some reason, he didn’t seem to be proud of his actions. He’d saved a life, and didn’t really care.

He also didn’t think that it was worth letting anyone know that he’d gotten hurt. Chuck wasn’t expecting there to be any friends, but no family either?

Chuck loved the guy, but sometimes he just didn’t understand him.

  


After school on Friday, Chuck went to the nearest supermarket with the intent to buy himself a fuck-load of Haribo to celebrate the end of the school year.

Before he got inside, however, he saw Thomas standing in the middle of the car park, along with a woman that he didn’t recognise. He wasn’t sure when exactly Thomas had been released from hospital, but it was great to see him.

He called out to say hi before approaching.

The woman turned out to be Thomas’ mother, Mary, who was in town for a bit to help Thomas while he recovered. She took an immediate liking to Chuck, and invited him round for dinner.

All it took was a quick phone call with his own mother, and they were on their way.

  


There’s a special sort of novelty to seeing somewhere you recognise on the tv.

It didn’t happen to Chuck very often, so when he realised that he knew the apartment block that was being shown on the news, he sat up and took notice.

Then he realised _why_ it was being shown.

A woman had been found dead in one of the apartments. The police were apparently in pursuit of a suspect who’d fled the scene.

The dead woman was Mary.

The suspect was Thomas.

  


Thomas didn’t show up to work the next day.

Of course he didn’t.

The police did, though.

The interviewed everyone, trying to see if they had any information as to his whereabouts.

Nobody did.

If Chuck was being completely honest, until the police had shown up he hadn’t known what to think. But when the officer asked him if he knew of anywhere that Thomas _could_ be, seeing as he was the one who knew him best, Chuck became overwhelmed with certainty.

There was no way that Thomas had killed his mother.

He’d been set up. Or the police were making a mistake. Or _something_. Because Thomas Cooper had clearly gotten along with his mother perfectly fine. People didn’t murder without motive, and Thomas had no motive whatsoever.

Not to mention that Thomas wasn’t the sort of person who’d ever be able to kill someone in cold blood.

He didn’t do it.

And now he was on his own.

  


It was an accident, really.

Chuck was walking home after the end of his shift, only to find the route completely blocked by a load of police cars and officers. Not wanting to deal with trying to go through them, Chuck turned the corner and started walking down the side street. It would take him longer to get home, but would be easier than dealing with that mess.

Then he saw someone fall to the ground from the top of the garden wall.

The person stood.

Whoever they were, they hadn’t seen Chuck, instead facing the other direction.

It was dark enough that Chuck couldn’t tell who it was. He turned on his phone’s torch so he could get a better look.

The person froze.

It was Thomas.

“Relax,” said Chuck, “it’s only me.”

Thomas turned around.

He didn’t say anything. He stared at Chuck, an almost haunted look on his face. Chuck couldn’t begin to imagine what the last 24 hours must have been like for him.

But now wasn’t the time to dwell on that.

“You just gonna stand there gawking or are we gonna go?”

Thomas’ eyes cleared. “Go,” he said. “Definitely go. I need to get out of here.”

Chuck smiled. “Yeah, you do.” He walked past Thomas, hoping that Thomas would be smart enough to follow him. “The cops are round the corner behind me, so let’s go this way instead. It’ll take a bit longer, but you’ll get caught if we try going the sensible route.”

Thomas had apparently taken longer to catch on than Chuck had anticipated, because he had to run to catch up now. “Where are we going?”

Chuck didn’t know why he’d expected Thomas to keep up, he really didn’t. It wasn’t like Thomas was an idiot or anything, because he _wasn’t_ , but sometimes he completely failed to see what was blindingly obvious. “Back to my place, of course.”

Thomas stopped in his tracks. “I can’t do that. You’ll just-”

“You don’t get a choice in the matter,” Chuck said over him. “And I’ll drag you if I have to.”

“But your parents-”

Chuck grabbed Thomas’ wrist. “They won’t know.” He resumed walking, giving Thomas the choice to either walk alongside him or be dragged. “Now come on! You need to get out of the open.”

Thomas chose to walk. An excellent decision, in Chuck’s opinion.

  


It turned out that Chuck had been right not to bring the murdered kids up in conversation.

Thomas had been best friends with one of them, and close enough with another to have a joint birthday party with her.

And he was saying that the person who’d been convicted of doing it was innocent. In fact, he was thinking that the person who killed his mother was the same person who’d killed those kids.

Chuck asked why he thought that, but Thomas didn’t have any actual evidence.

“It’s just a hunch. I could be completely wrong. And it doesn’t make much difference, anyway.”

Chuck agreed that it didn’t. Right now, the focus needed to be on keeping Thomas from getting caught before they could track down whoever it was that had killed Mary.

There wasn’t anything they could do for this apparently-innocent guy, or for those poor kids.

They were all long gone.

  


Chuck had to go into work the next day.

He’d already agreed to pick up extra shifts, now it was the summer holidays, and Lawrence was already down a worker. Chuck didn’t want to ditch.

Not to mention that ditching now would probably be suspicious in and of itself.

He left Thomas a note explaining where everything was and when he’d be back, ready for him to see when he woke up.

The police didn’t visit the pizza shop again. As far as anybody would be able to tell, absolutely nothing was wrong.

Once Chuck’s shift was over, he stuck his head around the door to the manager’s office to tell Lawrence that he was on his way out.

He wasn’t expecting to see the city councillor.

“Oh, sorry!”

Mr Llygoden chuckled. “It’s quite alright. I was just about to leave, anyway.” He stood. “Thank you for your time,” he said to Lawrence, before walking out.

Once the door shut behind him, Lawrence started beaming. “The council are thinking of putting a new crossing in right outside the shop! If the plans go ahead, footfall will increase dramatically!”

Chuck grinned. “That’s great!” He glanced at the clock. “I just came in to say that my shift’s over, so-”

“Before you go, can I talk to you for a sec?”

Chuck nodded.

“It’s about Thomas.”

Chuck was immediately on guard, but tried not to show it. “What about him?”

“You haven’t seen him, have you?”

“No, I haven’t.”

Lawrence nodded. “If you do, make sure to tell someone, okay? It’s what’s best for everyone.”

“Will do.” Chuck looked at the clock again. “Hey, before I go, could I take one of the spare pizzas?”

Lawrence laughed. “Go make yourself a fresh one.”

So Chuck did.

  


Chuck was nearly home when he figured out what was going on.

Pretty much the entire time he was walking, he’d been seeing movement out of the corner of his eye. But that was to be expected. He lived in a city.

But as he got further away from the city centre, and closer to where he lived, he became more and more suspicious.

So when he was just one street away, he turned to face whoever it was who’d been following him.

It was Lawrence.

“What the hell?”

“Oh. Chuck. Hey. Fancy seeing you here.”

“Why are you following me?”

“I’m not fol-”

“Yes you _are._ I know for a fact that you don’t live in this direction, and your shift isn’t done for another two hours, so what gives?”

Lawrence sighed. “I’m concerned that you know more than you’re letting on about Thomas’ whereabouts.”

Chuck froze, but recovered quickly. “Go away.”

“Chuck-”

“I said GO AWAY!” Chuck took a deep breath, and tried to stop shouting. “You have no right to be following me around like this. Go away before I call the police.”

Lawrence’s eyes widened in alarm, and he scurried off.

Chuck practically ran the rest of the way home.

For all Chuck had said about helping his friend, Lawrence had just _had_ to go and ruin it.

It was no longer safe for Thomas to stay.

  


While Thomas went on ahead, Chuck set about putting together a change of clothes for him.

Buried at the back of his parents’ wardrobe were plenty of things that his dad didn’t wear anymore, and wouldn’t realise had gone. Chuck gathered a few items together and laid them on his bed, before starting to search for a spare bag to put them in.

He was momentarily distracted when his phone went off.

 

**_From: Mary Cooper (Thomas’ mum)_ **

_Don’t turn around._

 

What? The fuck?

Mary was dead. There was no way that she could’ve-

Her killer.

Her killer sent this text.

But why?

And why could he smell smoke?

  


He made sure to give his phone to Thomas as he tried to get him out of the fire.

The police couldn’t use what was on it against him if they didn’t have access to it at all.

  


There was a police officer guarding his hospital room when he woke up.

But he got lucky.

After a few hours, the officer got a phone call and wandered away down the hall.

Chuck took his chance.

He ran.

He somehow convinced a boy, who looked to be a little younger then him and who was sitting in a nearby waiting room, to go into his room and pretend to be him, so if the officer glanced inside they’d see someone there and think everything was fine.

With that sorted, Chuck left the hospital.

His jeans had had some loose change in, so he decided to use it on the first payphone he came across.

He called his own phone. He knew it was a longshot, and that if Thomas had any sense at all, the phone would be off, and probably disassembled. But he had to _try_.

Nobody picked up, but it did ring through, so it was connected.

Chuck called again.

This time, it was answered almost immediately.

Chuck had never been more thankful for Thomas’ lack of foresight than he was in that moment. “Thank goodness you left it on!”

“...Chuck?”

“Yes!” He took a moment to remember to breathe. He’d had a stressful couple of days. “I need to talk to you! Meet me under the you know what.”

“Chuck, wait! Don’t go there. You should be in the hospital. You were in a house fire.”

“Pssshh, I’m fine. They patched me up and I’m good as new. I didn’t get burned or anything anyway, it was just smoke and shock. I’m all good now.”

“Still, you shouldn’t go there. It’s not a good idea for you to meet me.”

“Don’t worry! I’ll make sure I’m not followed. Promise!”

“That’s not what I meant. If you’re caught, then forget what it means for me, _you’ll_ get in trouble. I don’t want to cause any more problems for you than I already have.”

“Tough,” said Chuck, shaking his head even though he knew that Thomas couldn’t see him. Trust Thomas to disregard what was happening to him like that. “We still need to figure out who’s framing you.”

“A friend of mine is already on his way to you to talk about just that.”

“Well, they’re just going to have to talk to the kid I bribed into taking my place, because I’m already out of the hospital. I’m calling from a pay phone, dude, that much should be obvious from the caller id.”

Chuck wasn’t all that surprised that Thomas hadn’t noticed that.

“There’s no talking you out of this, is there?”

Chuck smiled. “None whatsoever. Oh! And don’t bring my phone with you. Just in case.”

Thomas said that he’d meet him there, and Chuck hung up.

Thomas was probably going to go straight to the underpass. Chuck couldn’t afford to do that in case he was followed. He needed to make sure that he wasn’t, so would have to take a much longer and indirect route.

But he didn’t want to leave Thomas waiting.

So there was nothing for it.

He’d have to run.

**Author's Note:**

> comments and kudos are super super great
> 
> come say [hi!!](https://astralpenguin.tumblr.com/)


End file.
